Photography Guide

Showcase your venue and add value to your Accessibility Guide

High quality photographs are a great way to showcase your venue and help set visitor expectations. Your

photographs can reassure and assist visitors to decide whether your venue matches their requirements.

This guide gives you examples of the images you should include in your guide along with tips for taking and

uploading your images. We have also included some basic instructions on how to resize images.

Essential pictures to include in your guide

1. Photograph of your venue and main entrance

A good exterior shot which shows the whole of the venue (if

possible) paying particular attention to the main entrance and

access road. Try to avoid taking a picture with people or

vehicles in front your façade. Add a photo which gives a

general view of the main entrance including any steps or

ramps. Include a picture of your main entrance door to

demonstrate whether it’s manual or automatic.

You will need one image of your venue to be exactly 430

pixels in height as this is the image which will feature

on the front page of your guide.

The ideal overall size of this image is 640 pixels wide x 430

pixels high, although you will be able to upload an image

that is smaller in width, as long as your image is a minimum

of 300 pixels wide and 430 pixels high.

If you upload an image that is bigger than 430 pixels high

the system will resize your image to fit the specified

dimensions.

2. Getting to the venue

Transport service:

If you offer a transport service for guests, it’s useful to take a

picture of the vehicle in such a way to show if it’s suitable for

them or not.

Parking:

If there is designated parking provided for disabled guests,

take a picture showing the spaces and a general view of the

parking to show the proximity to the entrance. It’s also useful

to include a photo of the route from the parking area to the

entrance.

3. Getting around inside

Public Areas:

Take a picture showing access from the entrance door to the

reception desk. If there are steps or a ramp make sure that

they are shown in the picture. It’s useful to include a picture

like this showing access to all other internal areas such as

lounge area, kitchen, bar, restaurant, bedroom, exhibition area

and any outdoor facilities too. You should also include images

showing any lower level reception or ticket desk areas.

Guest Bedrooms (accommodation businesses only):

Ensure your picture of the bedroom shows the circulation

space; include a picture of the bed(s) in a room designated for

wheelchair users.

4. Customer care support

Services for visitors with visual impairment or

hearing loss:

Include a picture of any facility or feature for guests with

visual impairments or hearing loss, such as, contrast

markings on stairs, vibrating pillow alarm or clock or a

hearing loop sign at reception or ticket desk.

Bathrooms or Public Toilets:

If you provide bathrooms with separate shower units or

bathtubs include a picture of the whole bathroom.

Where there is a shower unit or bathtub with support hand-

rails or shower seat or shower chair, include a picture of the

shower unit showing the floor, taps, handrails and shower

chair (if you have one). Include a general picture of your

public toilet, clearly showing the free space to the side and

handrails (if any).

Top tips for taking and uploading your photos:

High-quality photos will showcase your business. You can take good photos with just about any digital

camera, iPhone or smartphone less than 5 years old that has a flash.

1. Use the HDR (High Dynamic Range) feature on an iPhone or smartphone: This feature tells the

computer in your iPhone to take three pictures at the same time, and then the computer inside your

phone combines the best elements of all three shots to give you a real life looking picture. Keep your

hand still and wait for your camera to focus before taking the photo.

2. Show your venue in the best light: Shoot during the day, turn on all the lights, open the

curtains, blinds and doors and let in all of the natural light. Most modern cameras will adjust for bright

spots by darkening the rest, so focus the camera away from the windows if possible. On an iPhone, you

can lighten the shot by pressing the dark area before taking the photo.

3. Prepare the room: Sometimes called staging, preparing a room is a way of showing how best it

can be used. If you are able to temporarily reposition furniture in a room on request, then showing the

most accessible layout in your photo will be extremely helpful for customers with accessibility

requirements. Do not turn on TVs or make them the focus of your pictures; they rarely photograph well,

or are a major ‘selling point’ for a holiday!

4. Shoot into a corner: This technique shows a broad range of space and adds dimensionality to

the photo. Shooting flat onto a wall can make a space seem smaller than in real life, while corners help

give a sense of true perspective. Take shots from a variety of heights and angles so you can select

those that look best and show as much of the room as possible and try standing up on a chair or

squatting down on the ground.

5. Take photos outside: What’s outside is just as important as what is inside. Help set people’s

expectations of their arrival by photographing your venue from the outside. The best time to shoot

outdoors is the first and last hour of sunlight of the day, known as the “Golden Hour.” This is the time of

day where light is softest and brings out the broadest range of colour.

6. Take your photos in landscape (horizontal) format: vertical photos won’t showcase the finer

details of your venue’s accessibility feature as well.

7. Size matters: Images inside the guide should be 350 pixels in height. The ideal overall size for

images inside the guide are 540 pixels wide x 350 pixels high. However you will be able to upload

images that are less than 540 pixels wide, so the use of landscape and portrait style images is possible.

8. When you’re ready to upload your picture remember to:

a) Give your images informative filenames, e.g. front-entrance-ramp.jpg or wudon-dining-room-stair-

lift.jpg. Descriptive file names help Google with their search results.

b) You must also complete the ‘Alternate text’ field for each image you upload. Alternate text is really

important because it is used by screen readers to tell blind or partially sighted people what is on

the image. (In most browsers this text will also pop up when a user hovers a mouse over the

image). For example, if you add the following as alternate text ‘An accessible parking space with

yellow markings’, a person using a screen reader will hear “image of an accessible parking space

with yellow markings”. Please note there is no need to include the phrase ‘image of ...’ at the start

of your description. Ideally, you should aim to describe the image in less than 8 words if you can.

How to resize your images:

There are a lot of programs out there that will allow you to resize your images. Paint.Net is a free Microsoft

Tool which you can use to resize your images. If you don’t already have Paint.Net download it from the

Microsoft site.

The following instructions are for using Paint.Net to resize your images:

1. Open Paint.net and click on file>open and select the image file you want to resize. Once the file has opened, click on the Image menu and choose the Resize option.

2. You will see that the current file dimensions are shown. The photograph is now 1588 pixels wide and 2375 pixels high. You will also notice the Maintain Aspect Ratio checkbox. Make sure that it is checked. By doing so, you can change the value of the width, and Paint.NET will automatically calculate the cor-rect value for the height (or vice versa) so the photo won't get distorted.

3. Change the height of the picture to either 430 pixels (venue image) or 350 pixels (images inside the guide). Paint.NET has automatically adjusted the width to 314 pixels and click OK.

Don't be afraid to experiment, Paint.NET has an undo function that will quickly restore your photo to its original size, if something goes wrong.

Ensure your image has a resolution of at least 200, this is important because if you upload an image bigger than the specified sizes of either 430 pixels high or 350 pixels high, the system will automatically resize your image, to ensure the image quality is retained and to avoid a blurry image, your image resolution needs to be a minimum of 200 pixels.

4. Save the photo. Click on the File menu and choose ‘Save As’. Type in a new file name for your resized image using an informative filename e.g. woman-with-hearing-dog-in-transport-museum.jpg and click OK.

5. The final step is the Quality setting. You want the image to be the best quality it can be so just leave the slider at 100%, click OK and you are done!